Re-mastered from LP, this short-playing CD captures the Vienna-born
Friedrich Wührer (1900-75) in repertoire that is almost
comically determined to mine its theme. That theme is Paganini
and the alchemical use made of his Caprices by Liszt, Schumann
and Brahms. I’m not sure many pianists would espouse such
a programme now, but Wührer was an interesting case. He
was an associate of Franz Schmidt, whose music he programmed
frequently, and he was also closely allied with the Second Viennese
School in the 1920s; he performed Schoenberg at a time when
most didn’t. He was also sympathetic to Hindemith and
Stravinsky, and later on, Pfitzner.

On disc, however, he’s best remembered as a Vox artist
- indeed this LP is a 1955 Vox. And here it’s his big
Schubert odyssey that is his most enduing legacy - a complete
sonata cycle. But he was also a frequent studio presence. His
Beethoven Concerto cycle emerged piecemeal and there were four
conductors involved; Hans Swarowsky, Walther Davisson, Jonel
Perlea, and Heinrich Hollreiser. He joined with the first two
in the two Brahms concertos, and he teamed up with Rudolf Moralt
for the Dvořák, rather an unlikely vehicle one would
have thought. He espoused the second and third Prokofiev concertos
too. He had earlier made a handful of 78s of music by Reger,
Scriabin, Beethoven and Brahms. If you have been very observant
you’ll have noted that the Bearac label offered the Schubert
sonata material on its site, though I can’t claim any
acquaintance with it.

The matter in hand here, however, reveals both his virtuosity
and his single-minded musicianship - unflashy, rigorous, intellectual,
and convincing. Backhaus, Anda and Petri were some of the most
famous exponents of the Brahms Variations on disc, later to
be followed by such as Katchen. Michelangeli’s famous
recording, which predates Wührer’s, is both re-ordered
and cut. Wührer offers an intense sonic experience, powerful
and even passionate in places, and technically excellent. Similar
qualities are to be heard in the companion Schumann Etudes He
plays the six with great concentration and power, and with considerable
reserves of tonal weight. He was most certainly not a dainty
pianist, and examples of capricious or light-hearted musicianship
are not often to be encountered in his discography. But, as
in the Etudes based on the eleventh and thirteenth caprices,
he can certainly lighten his tone, and rhythmic flexibility
is also to be heard. The final Liszt cements the Paganinian
exploration with almost wilful, intellectual completeness.

I’ve not heard Vogue 672001 which contains the Brahms,
coupled with the Op.117 Intermezzi and a live, not studio, Schubert
D784 Sonata.

It wasn’t coincidence that Wührer was included in
Naxos’s 4 CD A-Z of Pianists. His musicianship
was formidable, and this restoration demonstrates that very
clearly. At 44 minutes in length and given the recording date,
though, this is one for the confirmed admirer.

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